Christopher H. Contag

Ph.D., University of Minnesota (1988)
Associate Professor, Pediatrics -- Neonatology
Stanford University

Research (Molecular Biophotonics & Imaging Laboratory)
Dr. Contag is an associate professor of neonatal and developmental medicine, microbiology and immunology, radiology; and director of the Stanford Center for Innovation in In Vivo Imaging. The goals of his optical and multi-modal imaging strategies are to develop tools that make the body essentially transparent for scientific discovery, and to use these tools to understand biology in the living body. Dr. Contag's work pioneered the use of gene expression of luciferase and optical methods of detecting bioluminescence in the study of cancer. These studies have contributed significantly to how molecular imaging is used around the world to refine animal models of human biology and disease. The papers from his laboratory have revealed key aspects of stem cell engraftment and differentiation in vivo, demonstrated mechanisms of pathogenesis for a variety of infectious agents, shown how the host responds to pathogenic insults, studied immune monitoring of malignancy, and uncovered regulatory pathways of control cell migration and development. Dr. Contag is also co-director of the Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS), one of the principals in founding the SMI, and a past president of the society. Dr. Contag is the winner of the 2006 Society for Molecular Imaging Achievement Award.

Education and Experience
Dr. Contag was a pre-and postdoctoral fellow in the laboratories of doctors Peter G.W. Plagemann and Ashley T. Haase in the Department of Microbiology at the University of Minnesota from 1983-1989. After receiving his doctorate in Microbiology from the University of Minnesota, he worked in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Stanford University School of Medicine in the laboratory of Dr. James I. Mullins. He expanded upon this experience as a postdoctoral fellow in Neonatal and Developmental Medicine for Stanford's Department of Pediatrics. Dr. Contag has been a faculty member at the Stanford University School of Medicine for nearly 12 years serving in the Department of Pediatrics (1995-present), Department of Microbiology and Immunology (1999-present), and Department of Radiology (2005 - present).